Alex05 Posted May 21, 2012 Share Posted May 21, 2012 Just been reading Dan Brown's 'The Lost Symbol'. Pretty bog-standard Brown book. Not very exciting although something caught my attention. Apparently, the Freemasons link the 33 vertebrae in our back to their 33rd degree initiation. Either each vertebrae represents each of Jesus' years (don't really believe that one) or it represents Jacob's Ladder climbing to Heaven, the brain being the highest form of human potential. Do you think there is something to it or is it just coincidence and obscure? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcdaddy Posted May 21, 2012 Share Posted May 21, 2012 this thread has been...........RESSSURRREECCTTTEEEDDD!!!! worship and pay homage accordingly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
owen652 Posted May 21, 2012 Share Posted May 21, 2012 DEFINITELY something to it. yeah... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
traveller2 Posted May 21, 2012 Share Posted May 21, 2012 Apart from yoga,freemasonry was one of the first things I explored after deconverting.having heard how evil it was I felt i really never belived that shit and wanted to be part of a mens fraternity.I joined and found some aspect very helpful in my spiritual/personal development at that time.I made one really good friend too.I was overall bored with it tho.I became a master mason in the york rite which is the final step of the first three in the blue lodge.I have not been to a meeting in two yrsd now tho I may return.Generally I was pretty bored tho. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FeelHappy Posted May 21, 2012 Share Posted May 21, 2012 My brother is way into this and the illuminati, he goes on and on about these things. I find it comical. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
midniterider Posted May 21, 2012 Share Posted May 21, 2012 What's up with all the crazy Freemason conspiracies? I was bored last night and was watching some paranormal conspiracy program On Demand just to see how crazy it was and the people were freaking nuts. They claimed that all our founding fathers were secretly Masons and the U.S. is actually a Freemason nation. They claimed all the pentagrams and pyramid symbols we use in the U.S. government is proof of this. They even went as far as to claim Bush was a member of some Freemason cult called Skull and Bones and Bush had a secret Satanic hand sign that was proof of this and 9/11 was an inside job started by Bush and the Freemasons. I hated Bush as the president, but I'm not so nuts as to come up with conspiracies about how he was a secret Mason who was behind 9/11 all along. They also claimed that the Knights Templar were a secret Freemason group and that Jesus was a Mason who didn't really die on the cross, but he had merely faked his death, got married to Mary Magdalene, and went to France where they had kids and the French royalty is supposedly descendants of Jesus who was secretly a Mason. And of course, this is all a top secret conspiracy that the Catholic church has been trying to suppress, but why is it that these conspiracy theorists who say it's top secret are always coincidentally the only ones who know about it? How did they find out about it if it's top secret? What I love is that they accused other paranormal programs of just trying to make money off of Freemason conspiracies but they're the real deal. I don't know anything about Masons at all but are they usually this nuts or is this just the conspiracy theorists who are crazy? I think it is common knowledge that some of the founding fathers were Masons. The rest of that sounds like baloney. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
midniterider Posted May 21, 2012 Share Posted May 21, 2012 Yeah, I've watched some of these "conspiracy" documentries involving this stuff just out of curiosity and amusement. It's kind of a whole sub-genre with some people. I've even checked out some of these conspiracy sites from time to time, but after a while it just gets more and more ridiculous. Lately the whole Illuminati thing has morphed into a RC/reptilian/space-alien/Freemason thing; some of these jokers just keep pushing the envelope. Freemasons, the Bildenberg Group, The Carlyle Group, the Roman Catholic Church, space aliens, George Bush Sr., Scientology, Star Trek, the UN, Microsoft, and Blackwater, they're all in on it. And Ex-Christian.Net is their secret front site where they make arrangements in coded posts by people who in fact are very rich and powerful. Well, now that you know, I'm afraid you all must be eliminated. Sorry about that. Am I one of the rich and poweful?! Hope so! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
midniterider Posted May 21, 2012 Share Posted May 21, 2012 A friend of mine back in Tennessee has been a mason since shortly after high school... has lots of kin in the organization. Having known him, and having been told about other Masons, I think it's basically a nepotism club. Nothing more sinister than that. They go to church with each other, help each other get jobs and promotions, work for each others' local political campaigns, etc. They wouldn't describe it as such, but it looks to me like a somewhat formalized buddy/buddy system. That would explain why my father and grandfather tried to get me interested in it when I started attending confirmation classes as a teenager. I asked them both what the Masons were about and they both said they could not tell me until I became a member. The only thing I truly remember saying to them in response; and it is also why I think they inspire so much crazy conspiracy theories, was: "Any group that is a secret club is secret because they must have something to hide. I do not want to be part of any group that can not be honest and forthright, unless you tell me what the secret is beforehand." Every now and then I throw some Mason conspiracy into the mix to push my dad's buttons...he never attends meetings or anything, I really have no idea what the point of it all is... I'm pretty sure the Masons run Amway. :-) Neither one of them want you to know what kinda meeting you are attending. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedStar Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 My brother is way into this and the illuminati, he goes on and on about these things. I find it comical. I was unfortunate enought to read some of that stuff, I think those people need serious pyschiatric help. I've never read anything to crazy in my life... it isn't that different to the delusions that people with schitzophrenia believe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
riddick Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 My brother is way into this and the illuminati, he goes on and on about these things. I find it comical. When my Christian friends start talking about the Illuminati, the only thing missing is the tin foil hats. They see symbols everywhere. Those kooky Christians. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Evidence2Day Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 Maybe your Christian friends had done a bit of research on the subject, a read of any of their own masonic books a free look at their own main library in London (free to search online) would reveal all anyone would need to know about their religious views, practices and powers. Of course, the majority of Masons who stay in the third degree have little idea of it's aims or purposes and would laugh at anyone who accused it of being a religion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FeelHappy Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 Thanks Evidence2Day for chiming in.... When my Christian friends start talking about the Illuminati, the only thing missing is the tin foil hats. They see symbols everywhere. Those kooky Christians. I was unfortunate enought to read some of that stuff, I think those people need serious pyschiatric help. I've never read anything to crazy in my life... it isn't that different to the delusions that people with schitzophrenia believe. From my perspective, I don't think its crazy but fits perfectly into the christian mindset of looking for clues without concrete facts. I remember in my fundi days, I took everything as a sign / communication from god. Try to park in a parklot which is full, I'd ask myself what is god trying to teach me or help me learn from this, everything pointed back to god. Same way with this Illuminati crap, you stat to read conspiracy theories about it and then suddenly you see signs and secret societies all around you, after a while you're convinced that the whole music industry is lead by satanists (with their leader Kenneth Anger) trying to lead loving god fearing christians to hell and gays aren't trying to get equal rights but to completely change the nation into a gay one or some shit (I forget the dumb discussions we had about this). I saw this today and it reminded me of this topic: http://freethoughtblogs.com/xblog/2012/05/21/i-am-the-masonic-harvard-antichrist Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
midniterider Posted May 23, 2012 Share Posted May 23, 2012 Maybe your Christian friends had done a bit of research on the subject, a read of any of their own masonic books a free look at their own main library in London (free to search online) would reveal all anyone would need to know about their religious views, practices and powers. Of course, the majority of Masons who stay in the third degree have little idea of it's aims or purposes and would laugh at anyone who accused it of being a religion. I think the real deal is that christian churches dont like competition. Any organization that isnt praising Jesus every 5 minutes must therefore be evil. If Masons are spending time at the lodge that means they are spending less time and money (primarily money) at the church. That's automatically evil. Who cares if the Masons have another religion? Do we have Masonic suicide bombers? Are they terrorists? What have they done to negatively impact YOUR life? Probably nothing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
owen652 Posted May 23, 2012 Share Posted May 23, 2012 we recently inherited some masonic badges, certificates and other assorted paraphernalia from my wife's deceased grandfather. I thought it was really interesting stuff, but when my parents (fundy christians) found out we had it, they went all ashen-faced and advised us to destroy it all at once, lest we bring the devil into our house. they honestly believed it was evil or something. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts